Movie Rating 8 out of 10 Family Rating Adult themes with strong violence and coarse language. There was something about the original Equalizer that made it stand out from all the other vigilante action movies and not just that Liam Neeson was nowhere to be seen. The action is great but without the need for CGI or death-defying stunts like in a 'Bourne' movie the close-up action brings an intensity that had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Denzel Washington returns to his role of Robert McCall, a former CIA agent, who is believed by most of the world to have been killed in a pre-movie explosion. This time he is working as an Uber-type driver who picks up on the problems of some of his customers and sets about righting wrongs. One of the early scenes sees him return to an apartment of pampered young executives who appear to have taken advantage of a young intern. The violence is up front and brutal as he dishes out on those who have taken advantage of this young women. In the original, Washington, achieves justice for strangers that he comes in contact with. In this story, the search for vengeance comes after losing a close friend to bad guys that should have known better. Along the way, we learn a little more about his previous role in the CIA but there is still a lack of details on what happened to his family and how he came to be considered dead. The showdown occurs when the bad guys and Denzel come in contact and realise that only one group will be still alive come the end of the movie. Travelling to a small town in the middle of a cyclone adds to the tension and difficulty as the game of cat and mouse plays out. The violence is graphic and certainly not for those who cannot stomach the sound of breaking bones, cringe-worthy injuries and gruesome deaths. Throughout all the chaos I love that Washington's character stays calm and collected, refrains from swearing and is even polite to those who he intends to inflict great pain. While there are definite goodies and baddies the line is often blurred as we see vengeance dished up outside the law and while I was always cheering for McCall you sometimes wonder what gives him the right to be the moral judge. I highly recommend this movie to those who enjoyed the original Equalizer and all of those, like me, who love the idea of dishing up vengeance but not too keen on the blood and pain that goes with it.    

Movie Rating 7 out of 10 Family Rating Superhero violence but no blood, few minor swear words, Having watched the second of the Ant-Man movies I realise that if it weren't for Paul Rudd and Michael Pena then this series would not have much appeal at all. The original movie showed how Ant-Man could shrink and grow tall, the powers he possessed but mostly that out of the suit, Scott Lang, was a regular divorced father dealing with family issues. In Civil War, we saw him in action on the side of Captain America and his abilities were shown to better effect. However, in this movie, it appears to be more of the same without much plot and at nearly two hours there were large stretches without much action. A big question coming into this movie is why wasn't Ant-Man part of the Infinity movie. A minor spoiler alert that isn't clearly spelt out is the fact that after the big battle scene in Civil War, Ant-Man is captured and put into 2 years home detention. If he takes on any superhero duties during this period he will be jailed for 20 years and he is not willing to jeopardise his relationship with his daughter. The beginning of the movie sees him with only a couple of days to go on his home detention before he is freed and throughout the movie an inept FBI agent tries to catch him breaking his parole conditions. The movie introduces Hope as the Wasp (Evangeline Lily) as she has been given a super suit by her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) that allows her to do the shrinking thing as well. They set off to try to find Hope's mother who was shrunk to a microbe size some 30 years earlier. Along the way, they are constantly chased by a bad guy, Sonny Burch, who wants the technology that they are using. They also have to fight off The Ghost and her carer who used to be one of Hank's research partners. There is a lot of racing around the streets of San Francisco with cars that shrink and then return to size. The comedy in the movie comes through Michael Pena's character, Luis, and his two assistants. The truth serum sequence is quite funny. But apart from that, a couple of fight scenes, and the car chase there is not much holding it together .... until the credits. As with all Marvel movies you never leave the theatre until the credits have ended. In this movie, the highlight of the film comes during the first post credit clip. You could hear the audience gasp when it is played. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie but certainly not up to the standard of recent Marvel movies. The ending must have some relevance in the next Avenger…

Rating     8 out of 10 Family Rating - Suitable for everyone. Lots of people have asked why it has taken 14 years for a sequel to The Incredibles to be created. Well, it may come as a surprise to realise that The Incredibles was made four years before the first Iron Man movie. Since then so many superheroes have come onto the scene that the creators of the Incredible family found it hard to come up with an original story for their characters. I can let you know that having watched Incredibles 2 that the wait was worth it. All the Parr family is back with the youngest, Jack-Jack now an important part of the storyline. The film starts with the age-old question - is the world better off with our without superheroes. Well before Captain America and his friends had to deal with superheroes being made illegal the Incredibles have been forced to hide their special powers. Behind the scenes, the owners of super-rich DEVTECH have plans to change the attitude of the community towards superheroes by working on their public image. Much to Bob's, Mr Incredible, disappointment it is felt that Elastagirl would be much easier to promote and so he takes on the responsibility of raising the children and looking after the home. So everyday issues relating to women's equality, stay at home dads, teenage girl romances and how to encourage the children to find their self-esteem are addressed while trying to capture the latest villain, The Screen Slaver. The story has twists and turns in regards to who is and isn't the real villain. However, the key aspect of the movie develops as Jack-Jack's superpowers are revealed and how to get a toddler to restrain them. Though it took 14 years to bring them back the Incredibles show how a family that sticks together, through thick and thin, that all challenges can be overcome. One of my favourite parts of the movie is the appearance of Edna, as she takes on the job of creating a super suit for Jack-Jack. She still reminds me so much of SBS presenter Lee Lin Chin.  

Movie Rating - 8 out of 10 Family Rating - Not suitable for young children as more gore than before and frightening images of stalking dinosaurs and erupting volcanoes. The strength of a good adventure movie is to have you sitting on the edge of your seat even when you know that the main characters will survive their present danger. Jurassic World did that for me. Whether it was surviving face to face encounters with salivating dinosaurs or escaping from the clutches of bad guys in all sorts of incredible ways I still found myself tense and holding my breath. The story for this episode of the Jurassic story takes place four years after the theme park was destroyed and humans abandoned the island. The situation has arisen where a dormant volcano is threatening to end all life on the island. A decision has to be made whether to let the dinosaurs deal with the natural disaster or try to remove them from the island. The Government says let them die but an opportunity is provided to rescue them and move them to a new sanctuary funded by one of the original founders of Ingen, Benjamin Lockwood. This movie restores an important part of the original Jurassic Park theme by adding a child to the story in Benjamin's granddaughter Maisie Lockwood. The use of children ramps up the intensity of the threat level and a scene with her being stalked by the Indo-raptor (the new baddie dinosaur) will create many nightmares. While on the subject of children my recommendation is that parents should think twice before allowing young primary children to watch this as there is more unsettling images and visible gore as the dinosaurs take out the baddies bit by bit. And of course, this would not be a Jurassic movie without human baddies seeking to make money or gain power from the dinosaurs themselves. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, as Owen and Claire, carry this movie again and apart from Maisie, there were no great additions to the cast, none that lived to appear in the next movie anyway. The reappearance of Blue, the trained Velociraptor, and T-Rex provides a continuation of some popular dinosaurs. The appearance of a young Pachycephalosaurus (look it up) is the only addition of a likable dinosaur, while most seem intent in damage and destruction. This storyline contains enough differences to distinguish it from the other movies in the franchise and provides new settings for the whole dinosaur experiment to go wrong. The movie ends with lots of open questions, especially around Maisie's origins and mankind's future relationship with dinosaurs, sufficient to encourage discussion amongst the family and work colleagues about which direction it will take. I have to say I will be eagerly looking forward to the next episode. 8 out of 10

This movie is based on the Penelope Fitzgerald novel of the same name. I am sure that the story of a young war widow setting out to establish a bookshop in a small English village is very well written and allows you to identify with the many quirky characters, both good and bad. Unfortunately, this movie provided me with no interest in any of them. I will warn you now of story spoilers but I believe the screenplay writers already did a good job of spoiling this story. The movie revolves around war widow, Florence Green played by Emily Mortimer, who moves to a small town and sets up a bookshop in a building known as the Old House. Violet Gamet, Patricia Clarkson, is an older gentry woman who for some reason does not want the bookshop to open and it is inferred that she will do anything to prevent the enterprise from succeeding. Along the way, we meet various members of the community from an unsympathetic bank manager, local cad, some young children and a reclusive Edmund Brundish, Bill Nighy, who appears to be Florence's only adult supporter. The story proceeds very slowly, interrupted by awkward conversations, followed by awkward silence, followed by shots of rustling trees and running water. The movie fails to portray the motivations of most of the characters and so their behaviour is not easy to follow. Which, for me, raised the following questions; What is Florence's attachment to the Old House and how did she come to find it as it does not appear that she has lived in the town before. Why does Violet want the Old House and what is her attachment to it? What hold does Violet have over the rest of the villagers to make them support her? What has Mr Brundish done for his whole life? Is the hand holding scene supposed to be romantic or just creepy? Did Florence actually sell any copies of Lolita? If any fellow Escapees can answer these questions please let me know. This film may appeal to those who enjoy movies such as Remains of the Day, A room with a view or Howards End or anyone else looking for 90 minutes of snooze time. Family Rating - No language, sex, or any signs of life Rating - 3 out of 10

How does the Star Wars production team keep pushing out amazing new movies without taking anything away from the original storyline? I believe it comes down to having new directors for each episode, each bringing their own ideas and perspective to the overall storylines. The second is to take a risk on new and unknown talent while surrounding them with acting experience. Solo: A Star Wars Story does just that. Allowing experienced director, Ron Howard, use his skill to tell an origin story on a character that we all know and love allowed the story to stay fresh even though we think we know it all. Selecting Alden Ehrenreich as Solo and Donald Glover as Lando was the turning point of this movie's success as it did not take long to accept that the characters they played were the immature and inexperienced versions of the future Solo and Lando. Alden's Solo showed off his streetwise self-confidence, mixed with his desire to be included with the 'grown ups'. His interaction in meeting Chewbacca and Lando for the first time showed how their friendships were established and could continue throughout the Star Wars timeline. The feature of a successful Star Wars anthology story appears to be the inclusion of a feisty android. Rogue 1 had K-2SO and Solo has the feisty L3-37. This character was central to a lot of the funnier moments in the film and has a great chemistry with Lando. Other memorable roles are played by Woody Harrelson as Solo's on again, off again ally, Paul Bethany as the over the top bad guy, Dryden Vos and of course Amelia Clarke as Qi'ra who is Solo's romantic crush but possibly his downfall. I have been surprised by the negative comments posted by other reviewers and it reinforces why I chose to become a reviewer. The quality of a movie is the joy it brings to those who watch it and in this case my love of everything Star Wars was only enhanced by watching Solo. I look forward to the subsequent Solo movies and see how the characters develop leading up to their portrayal in A New Hope and beyond. A family movie for anyone who loves adventure, good guys vs bad guys and a storyline that rocks. 8.5 out of 1

If you grew up in the 80's then the release of a Steven Spielberg movie was always the highlight of the year. ET, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and the list just went on. You knew that there would be an adventure, special effects and characters that you would become iconic. While still producing and directing amazing movies, the adolescent magic went missing. That is until Ready Player One. There appears to be a lot of push back from those who have read Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. I am not one of those fans so I watched this movie with no pre-conceived ideas of what to expect. I have to say that I left the theatre with nostalgia having experienced the joy that comes from being fully entertained, having been taken to a world where I don't live but would love to visit. The story is set 30 years in the future where the world has experienced some major setbacks and people are relegated to experiencing happiness and self-worth in a virtual universe, known as the Oasis. Here you can be who you want and forget the hardships of life. The main character is Wade (Tye Sheridan) who takes on the persona of Parzival as he takes on the challenge to find the three hidden keys that will unlock the ownership of the Oasis and virtually the world. Opposing him is Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) who is the corporate tyrant who hates the Oasis but wants the control that it will give him. Parzival has a number of friends and allies in the Oasis who have their own persona but have never met Parzival's Wade in the real world. As Parzival uncovers the clues and is awarded the 'keys' to the kingdom, he is caught up in the politics of who will come to own the Oasis and how will impact the world. The film itself is breathtaking in the graphics that are used to portray the Oasis. I felt that I was strapped into the best gaming machine in the world. The car race scene is spectacular and will appeal to any gameboy or gamegirl. But if you are not the owner of a Play Station, Nintendo or Xbox don't worry as there is plenty of storylines to follow without being nerded out. The movie has a soundtrack stolen from the 80's, plenty of pop culture and an amazing reference to 'The Shining' movie. As our characters enter a simulation of the Overlook Hotel and a yellow tennis ball rolls along the hall, stopping at their feet, you could feel the anticipation of the audience. Would they meet the twins or enter Room 247? While we meet most of the characters initially in the Oasis, the personalities that you have become familiar with are visible in the real-life characters when they are…

My interest in this movie was aroused when I first saw the trailer and was preparing to see it at the theatre only to find it pop up on Netflix. Apparently, it flopped so badly in the US that they didn't bother to release it commercially here in Australia. So with this in mind, I had no expectations of what to expect. It is made by Alex Garland who is responsible for Ex -Machina. The plot revolves around an event that is of an alien nature that impacts a small area of unpopulated coastal America. A curtain rises around the area, known as the Shimmer, that allows people to enter but not return. Kane, played by Oscar Issac, is a member of a military special ops team that leaves for a mission but never returns to his wife Lena, Natalie Portman. After a year of believing that he is missing in action, Kane returns to the home but is not well. Lena rushes him to the hospital but on route, they are intercepted by members of an agency and taken to a facility near the Shimmer where Kane's condition is getting worse. Lena is told of the Shimmer and that they are planning to send another team to discover its secrets. However rather than a military team, they are sending in a group of women with scientific and medical backgrounds, including characters played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gina Rodriguez. Lena is recognised not only as a former army officer but also as a biologist and wants to find out what happened to her husband she agrees to join the project team. As they enter they lose radio contact with the outside, their compasses don't work and it doesn't appear that they are able to keep track of time. As they travel closer to the genesis of the Shimmer they come across stranger anomalies and personal threats. With about 1/2 hour to go, it turns all 'Twilight Zone' with very surreal imagery that I feel I have seen before but I can't remember if it was pictures of modern art or another movie. The presence of the alien, what it wants to do and whether it achieves it are the questions asked but I still am not sure of what the answers were. So why am I reviewing a movie that was so badly panned it skipped directly to Netflix. I am not sure exactly, but I know that while I was watching the story unfold I found something in the story telling that captured me even if the story may not have been that good. Am I starting to sound like one of those pretentious movie reviewers I have rebelled against? If you have time to kill and access to Netflix, give it a try and let me know what you think. I'm not…

I believe that your acceptance of the new Tomb Raider franchise will be determined by whether you can accept Alicia Vikander as the athletic, intelligent and very English action hero. Unfortunately for me, Alicia does not fit my image of the famous Tomb Raider. Now before you pin a #metoo badge on my lapel, I am not talking about the Angeline Jolie curves. This movie is a prequel to the original meeting and so this version of Lara Croft is supposed to be around 21 years old and yet to take on the villains of the world. Alicia Vikander is close to 30 and while looking young she does not have the swagger or mental toughness that you identify with a Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games or Shailene Woodley in Divergent. With so many talented young females around I have to question why Alicia Vikander. Having not accepted this version of Lara Croft I then found that the rest of the production seemed very lazy. The jungle sets looked as if they had been stolen from an old King Kong movie and the special effects from a MacGyver episode. Lara survives a shipwreck, falls down a rock face, thrown down a raging river, escapes the crumbling ruins of an old aeroplane and then parachutes through the thick canopy of the rainforest and comes out the other end with a small graze on her cheek. Not only does our star escape any major blemishes but her shorts and singlet also survive without tears or holes. The plot is set to explain how Lara Croft became the tomb raider that she is famous for. We see her close relationship with her father even though he is always away and sends her off to boarding school for most of her life. We are asked to believe that she has all the skills of a tomb raider by watching her get beaten in a martial arts bout with another woman, shoot an arrow at an apple that is stationary and ride a bike really fast before crashing into a car. After thinking her father is dead she finds his secret work room and discovers that he is a modern-day Indiana Jones. So ignoring her father's instructions to destroy all his work she decides to try and find him although he has been missing for over six years. Her early adventures lead her to an uninhabited island off the coast of Japan where a famous queen that has 'the touch of death' is buried but being sought by an unknown evil villain. Without giving away the plot she takes on the bad guys and this leads to more lazy story writing. She arrives on an island that is populated by multiple males that have been stranded there for years but not one of them even gives her a second look…